Kozhiyada/Irachiyada (Chicken stuffed Pockets) with step by step pictures & short video

Ramadan is a month of fasting and not feasting. Unfortunately, many forgot the true meaning and blessings of this blessed month. The sales of supermarkets go high, malls are full, latenight shopping , people seen partying around and women spend whole day in the kitchen. I'm not saying that we should not eat or drink or cook, but  managing the time enough to worship, seek forgiveness and turn closer to Allah is more important than all these. Spend your time wisely. Do prepare yourselves and all your house chores this month which may help you in refraining yourselves inRamadan from doing least important activities. 

We break the fast using dates, fruits and juices. Making fruits salads or chaats with nuts turn them a bit appealing to the kids. Otherwise they hate fruits. Fruits and juices can't be avoided when fasting during long summer days. These help in bringing our fluid and bloodsugar levels up ,without overdoing it. After maghrib prayer, we eat our snacks with tea. We make it as simple and less spicy as possible and restricts our intake to a few numbers. I think we should not upset our tummy by stuffing too much of food immediately after Iftar. People always find ways to excuse themselves and make more than one variety saying this is for my daughter, one for my son ,one for hubby etc. I usually don't do that; instead I make one snack a day, hubby's favourite a day, daughter's the next day and my son's favourtie the third day. The cycle goes on whole Ramadan, unless guests are invited for Iftar. Inviting guests for Iftar is a sunnah ,whereas don't take this oppurtunity to show off your friends how good a cook you are and stuff them as much as possible. Choose 2-3 of the best snacks and which takes less effort and which may not hinder your prayers or other religious activities. I prepare beforehand and freeze some snacks this month and invite guests as early as possible; most probably during the first ten days. Then comes the dinner, a slight heavy for us after tharaveeh. We couldn't help that all these years. Mostly pathiris , non-veg side dish and kanji to keep the fluid balance. Suhoor is always light and healthy. Fibre rich, non-spicy and non-fried alongwith 2-3 dates and lots of water. This is our Ramadan food routine. I'm not boasting anything or trying to prove how good I am, but a slight attempt to make realize few of my Kannur friends,who are so excited to cook and click during Ramadan. I was like that a few years back; but changed for the good ;)

 That was a long intro. Now this recipe is simple,traditional , delicious and famous Malabar snack. Chicken filled pockets or Kozhi (chicken)ada or we can call it Irachi(meat) ada when we make it with Beef/Mutton filling. It's delicious with either beef or chicken or mutton filling. The choice is completely yours :) Shaping can be done in various ways. I've tried to include 2-3 common shapes. Some shape it like chinese wontons too.

 Click the link for filling recipe.

Chicken Filling

Beef/Mutton Filling

Ingredients for the Dough/Pastry:

All purpose flour/Maida 2 cups

Salt 1 tsp

Oil 2 tbsp

Warm water enough to knead

Method:

1. Knead the dough using the above ingredients to the consistency of a roti dough. Loose dough may turn the whole process into messy and lead to oily snack.

2. Devide the whole dough into four equal balls and roll them up into a big roti as seen in the picture. Don't roll into so thin which might result in oily snack.  I didn't measure the thickness but 1 or 2 mm less thicker than my chappathi ;)

 3. Take a cookie cutter or cirlce shaped lid or anything of the kind and cut small round cutouts like shown in the picture. If your lid is not that sharp enough to cut, shape it first and then use a knife to cut.

 4. Now take a small cutout, stuff in with the filling of your choice, fold it into a semi-circle , close and seal the edges. If you want to design the edges this way, check the video below.

 5. A different style to edges: After sealing the edges, take a fluted pastry wheel (zigzag cutter), dip that in flour to prevent it from sticking to the dough, roll it through the edges and then, remove the cutouts.

6. Yet another style: Use a slightly bigger cutter this time. Cut them into small cutouts, take one, take 2 tsp of filing and place it in on one side of the roti , separated from each other as seen in the third picture in the collage below. Close and seal the edges. Press in the middle of those two stuffing and seal there too. Run the fluted pastry wheel through the middle and the edges. You will get two adas(snack) here.

 7. I double fry most of my snacks, which make it more crispier. For this, throw in few snacks in hot oil in low flame and fry till it changes its color little bit. Oil should not be too hot and do not fry too much the first time. Just a little change in color is enough. It may take 10-15 seconds.

8. Draining and cooling is very important before freezing or frying for the second time. Cool it completely. Make sure that these are not kept overlapped while cooling. This is the stage where you can freeze them.

9. For freezing: Take an airtight container and layer once-fried and cooled snacks on it. After doing a single layer, place a sheet of cling film on it and then layer adas again. Place clingfilm, then adas and so on.. till all the snacks are placed in the box. Place one more sheet of cling film on top and then close the lid tightly. Keep this in the freezer. This would stay fresh for about 2 months or so. Once freezed, you can change these to freezer bags and no need of clingfilm after freezing.

10. Deepfry them in hot oil in medium flame till they turn brown, crispier and crunchier. Serve them hot.